DEAN GORRE has a few influential names in his contacts book.

The Scottish Football Association's new under-17 coach has just left a job working with Johan Cruyff in Ajax's fabled youth system, and once spent a year shadowing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. In terms of managers who have influenced European football over the past 25 years or so, there are few bigger.

It was family reasons that caused Gorre to turn his back on Ajax and accept an offer to join Mark Wotte's staff at Hampden. His family are based in Manchester, where one of his sons is a player in United's under-18 team and his other is showing similar progress. There are not many people who turn down Cruyff but Gorre did so and with his compatriot's blessing.

"Mark and I have a history, so it was an easy choice to leave," he said. "I've lived in Manchester for the last 12 years so my family is more or less English. Two of my sons play for Manchester United, one for the under-18s, and the other is seven. They weren't going to be happy if they had to move to Holland. I worked with Johan Cruyff for seven months at Ajax but by then I knew I wasn't going to stay.

"So when this offer came from Mark, straight away I was enthusiastic about it. Johan was really straight forward about it and happy with my decision to come to Scotland. He knows family is very important."

Gorre approached Ferguson several years ago when he was looking to complete his Pro coaching licence and was given a warm welcome by the Scot. "I was fortunate enough to be able to shadow him for a season to see how he works," he said. "I watched a lot of training sessions and how he deals with things, and how it works at the academy. When I didn't have a job after Southampton, I asked him if I could do my Pro licence there and he said I could go in any time I wanted. So I went in nearly every day for a year. And I loved it as that's not something he would do for everyone."

Gorre is relishing the chance of coaching Scotland's up-and-coming players. "My role now is to work with the under-17s and try to qualify for the tournaments. But I'm also involved with the performance schools where we will try to get the best out of the players. We have to try something different."

Wotte, the SFA's performance director, was similarly happy to add Gorre, with whom he previously worked at Southampton, to his staff. "Whenever I pick staff you look for people with quality, and if you know the personalities of the people, you build up loyalty," he said. "Dean and I have a history working together at Southampton and he's offensive thinking. He was an attacking player, a No.10 in Holland, and that gives him another angle in his approach.

"He worked for Ajax too and at that level they always want to dominate games, to pass the ball. The Ajax under-19s just beat the Barcelona under-19s in the NextGen to reach the semi-finals so Dean brings a lot of experience of that."

The recent appointments of Gorre and Scott Booth, who joins as assistant youth coach, completes Wotte's recruitment drive. His hope now is that, with the right people in place, Scottish youth football will flourish and evolve.

"We need positive coaching and self exploring, but also not to be afraid to take risks at the back," he said. "That's the modern way of football and we have to start thinking in this philosophy. I don't want a coach who only wants to play long balls, hitting the channels and looking to pick up the second ball. We want to create a philosophy of building from the back, with a strong midfield and dynamic wingers. The countries that are successful nowadays – Germany, Holland and Spain – all play the same 4-2-3-1 system and I think this is the way forward."

One young player to have impressed Wotte recently is Islam Feruz. The Dutchman travelled to watch the former Celtic player in action for Chelsea earlier this week and was impressed with what he saw. The Somalian-born forward qualifies for Scotland after attending school here and Wotte believes comparisons can be drawn between the 17-year-old and Jermain Defoe, the Tottenham Hotspur striker.

"Islam is very mature and is really knocking on the door at Chelsea," he said. "They have already promoted him from the youth team to the reserves so he's playing with 18 and 19 year-olds. He's scoring goals and scored in the FA Youth Cup when I saw him and, although he is living in London now, he's really keen on joining up with us.

"It just has to be a step by step approach, we don't want to fast-track him too quickly. He's something special as we don't have this kind of striker in a lot of age groups. He's small but very quick, like a young Jermain Defoe if you were to compare the styles."

As part of the new Performance Strategy, the SFA has announced that all young supporters under the age of 16 will gain free entry to all Scotland youth international matches.